Everywhere the talk is about The Fiscal Cliff, and the negotiations. Everyone wants to know what Obama wants. He wants to tax the rich, and Jay Carney has assured us that he will veto any bill that does not tax the rich. Obama is apparently going to go out campaigning to rouse the nation to lobby for the bill he wants passed, his way.

I’ve pointed out that Alan Reynolds said that “Obama doesn’t understand economics and apparently won’t listen to anyone who does.” He also doesn’t understand negotiations. His idea of negotiations is to force you to agree with him. He hates disagreement.

An odd trend has taken place in the United States. The two political parties have grown more distinctly separate, more dramatically opposed to each other. I don’t know why I’m surprised any more, but after the election, there was an outpouring of really angry Democrats, calling conservative talk shows, tweeting, attacking Romney signs or bumper stickers. They won, and we weren’t humble enough, defeated enough, subservient enough. I’ll admit I was really disappointed in the election, but they won, and what was that all about? Why were they so angry about winning? We are not supposed to disagree.

It’s not just that. There are Republican ideas and there are Democrat ideas, and never the twain shall meet. Republican ideas are wrong, lies, false, stupid, and, of course — racist. Republicans like Fox News because it is indeed more fair and balanced. Obama would prefer not to have any representative of Fox in the press corps, or on the plane. Democrats hate Fox: wrong, lies, false, stupid, and, of course— racist.

Democrats believe in Keynesian economics, that a downturn results from a lack of demand, and to fix it you have to create demand, so they keep trying to pump money into the economy in one way or another, in hopes that people will spend the money and thus jump-start something or other. Doesn’t work, has never worked, but hope springs eternal.

Indeed, Obama’s $800 billion neo-Keynesian stimulus package actually impeded economic recovery. According to John B. Taylor, a Stanford University economist who carried out an in-depth study of the stimulus, the government’s spending did not result in growth and jobs.

“Individuals and families largely saved the transfers and tax rates,” Taylor wrote.”The federal government increased purchases but by only an immaterial amount. State and local governments used the stimulus grants to reduce their net borrowing…rather than to increase expenditures, and they shifted expenditures away from purchases toward transfers. Some argue that the economy would have been worse off without these stimulus packages, but the results do not support that view.*”

“Obama’s own views about what he has, and has not, learned during his four years in the White House say a lot about why he has been a failure as president.*”

The area in my presidency where I think my management and understanding of the presidency evolved most,” Obama has said,”and where I think we made the most mistakes, was less on the policy front and more on the communications front.

You mean he didn’t make enough speeches? The greatest communicator since Ronald Reagan had — a failure to communicate? Well, that’s why he’s going out to rouse the compliant.

Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on the rich would reduce the deficit from $1.1 trillion to $1.02 trillion, maybe. The rich have lots of options, and can rearrange their affairs to pay less in taxes. The rich are moving out of high tax states and taking their businesses with them. They can move their money around too.

The owners of 990,000 small businesses, defined as those with 50 or more employees, report their income on their 1040 tax returns. In response to the new costs of ObamaCare, many are reducing their employees to 49 or less.

President Obama does not believe that small businesses number among “the rich” as Republicans claim. Small businesses are the neighborhood barber, the shoe shop, and the little bookstore. He even made a point of visiting a small bookstore in the capitol, to celebrate small business, this weekend.

So what does President Obama want? He wants to make speeches, because that’s where he’s comfortable. He wants to tax the rich because he believes in redistribution of wealth and believes he has a mandate to do so. He wants more revenue to spend. He wants people to stop disagreeing with him. And he doesn’t think there are any consequences from raising taxes, so as soon as he’s inaugurated for his next term, he’ll slap on a carbon tax, because that’s what his green supporters want. Redistribution of wealth usually turns out to be redistributed to the ruling class, and the poor are just poorer than ever.

Time for Walter Wriston again:

Capital will go where it is wanted and stay where it is well treated. It will flee from manipulation or onerous regulation of its value or use and no government power can restrain it for long.

Like this:

Related

The thing about this “Great Communicator” is that his communication skills AREN’T that good. Every time he goes out to promote something like this, he loses support. Sure, he got elected (by fewer people this time than last time, but still enough), but it wasn’t because he promoted a better vision of the future or the success of his policies; it was because he lied about and demagogued and demonized his opponent… something that runs in common with every other campaign he’s ever won. He’s never run FOR anything… he always runs AGAINST something. which is why when he tries to persuade people to do something he wants, that’s the area he’s not good at. He can’t persuade because he doesn’t know how to. He doesn’t know how to present the positive of an issue, which is why he pushes the negatives of the alternative.

One thing has struck me about Obama since he has arrived on the national scene; everyone whom Obama calls a “friend” is someone with a vested interest in his career. Jarrett, Axelrod, Ayers and Dohrn, Wright and Pfleger, and countless others… all either help Obama because it is in their professional political interest, or they are asked to lay low for much the same reasons. You never hear about Obama entertaining some old college buddy (one that has no political brief) or a friend from an old job. You hear about how he plays basketball and golf, but it’s always with staff members or people with a professional of political reason for being there. I think, with no pressure to campaign (not that he’ll stop… it’s the only thing he knows how to do and has had any success with), some of the facades will fall, and the country is going to see first hand why it is Obama seems so… alone, for lack of a better term.

Excellent analysis. Have you read Ed Klein’s The Amateur? It is a straight reporter’s book, based on hundreds of interviews. I usually don’t read the exposes. What I don’t understand is the cult of Obama. The true believers who simply ignore the obvious failings.

In the election just past, we had, perhaps the two most qualified men ever to run for the presidency and vice presidency. High moral character, depth of economic knowledge, complete understanding of and love for the country, ability to tackle the problems facing the country, truly good men. We may perhaps never again have two such qualified people as candidates. The public basically, according to exit polls agreed, but they believed that Obama cared about them.

Yet he does not, at all. It is all about him. That some do something for him is simply his due. He feels no obligation to respond or even make a friendly phone call. He truly does not care for anyone outside of his family and Jarrett. His most outstanding characteristic is the extent to which he “throws people under the bus” — and never follows through with what he owes those who have supported him, except for “cronies” who gave him big money and who he needed to give big money again. But as far as friendly calls, invitations, acknowledgment, nah. But the people believed that he cared for them, and Romney didn’t. Yes, he is more comfortable alone, he lives in his own head. Richard Epstein said he imitates an intellectual, and plays a fierce game of intellectual poker.

[The following, spied on the web, shows how close Heaven – or Hell – is to America.]

Obama Enslaves & Destroys Inner Cities

( I experienced all this while trapped in a large American city.)

The suburbs are booming, but not fast enough. Yessir, you ghetto folks
in inner cities have started a good thing, but there are still lots of acres
outside the cities without any houses on them. So you’ve gotta move into
“untouched” city blocks and do the following:
Throw trash everywhere. You’ll insure that your friends who pick up trash
and distribute free rat poison packets will keep their jobs. And folks can
predict the weather by the direction the trash is blowing!
Walk down the street. Better yet, rhythm down it. And when I say street
I don’t mean sidewalk. Save sidewalks for your friends on cycles. Besides,
it’s hard to fit many cursing, screaming, drinking, pot-smoking kids on a
sidewalk, and it’s also hard to spot keys and other things left in cars when
you’re walking on a sidewalk!
When walking down a street, turn your head when you hear a car coming
and stare at the driver. For all you know, it might be one of your enemies
out to get you. On the other hand, it might be only your neighbor and all
that hateful staring might make him want to move out.
Be sure to beget lots of unloved, unsupervised, unwashed two-legged
“Obama welfare meal tickets” – either through wedlock or (preferably) out of
wedlock. And let them often ring doorbells, begging for money.
Turn quiet streets into noisy jungles. Have a blast – a
long blast with your car horn under your neighbor’s window at
3:00 a.m. Let folks know who the real honkies are! Blow your horn when (1)
you see the police coming (2) you want to buy some dope (3) you want to sell
some dope (4) for any other reason. Play your stereo so loudly that folks can’t
hear sirens going to the latest holdup or arson. Be noisy, man, noisy!
Be cruel to animals, especially “man’s best friend.” Tie your dog on a
short chain under a blazing sun with no water or food or love or license or
dog shots. Make him as mean as you are. Better yet, let your dog run loose.
Neighbors love to find freshly killed cats (after hearing their screams) and
other goodies on their lawns. Pit one dog against another in bloody “canine
cockfights” while friends lounge on car hoods and cheer and make bets! And
what madness is it where folks move out and abandon pets in the house,
leaving them nothing to eat but their own droppings? This happens often in the
ghetto, and almost no one will help the animals.
Keep a good supply of Saturday Night Specials – also Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Night Specials. Your criminal
presence will improve your neighbor’s light bill; when he isn’t watching you
at night (with his lights off), he will be able to read books at night by
the light of the police helicopter searchlights!
Here’s more insanity: Uncle Sam spends millions of our tax money to
move you into our neighborhoods where we lose much when we sell our homes.
So you have your nerve when you glare and swear at us when we don’t move
out quickly; but you’re the reason we can’t find good buyers! I really wonder
what you and Uncle Sam will do when lots of folks move to the wilderness and
live off the land and consequently don’t have to pay taxes to support such
sickness!
Finally, spread the rumor that all of your troubles are associated with
skin, even though you and I know that your problem isn’t skin. It’s sin!!!
What makes a ghetto? It’s not the paint on a house (or lack of it) but all
of you two-legged pains in the neck!
For more information on Blockbuster Obama, Google “The Background Obama
Can’t Cover Up.”